Something Worth Living For
by stormy.grace
Summary: What might have happened if Elijah had made a different decision.


**Hello, my loves! So, here's the deal. I want this to be a multi-chapter situation, BUT I'm too excited about how this first bit turned out and I REALLY want to see what you guys think of it.**

 **Here's the other deal. I know there's some drama and controversy about the Originals finale and Legacies. I did NOT write this because I don't like the way things ended. I LOVE the way things ended because it really was true to the characters and the story, and I'm SUPER excited for Legacies. I wrote this because this last season of Originals really hit me hard with all the mom feels. And I mean HARD.**

 **DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE FINALE AND DON'T WANT SPOILERS!**

 **I was prepared to say goodbye to Klaus, but Elijah's death really messed me up. I woke up the next morning having a panic attack like I used to after my mom died a few years ago, and I simply could not deal with that. So while I approve of and understand the choices the writers made I needed to know what might have happened if Elijah had stayed. This is what I've come up with.**

 **If you're like me and my sweet Maddie Moose you might want to grab some tissues. Other than that all I have to say is enjoy! Oh! And yes. I did borrow some of the dialogue from the original scene, so don't go around thinking I deserve the credit for those words. Anyway, enjoy! ~SG**

Something Worth Living For

"I intend to die by your side." Elijah informed his brother.  
The night was still and quiet; all the Mardi Gras excitement having died down as the last few partygoers wandered off to their rented beds to sleep off the alcohol they'd likely been consuming all day, but all Klaus was aware of were the words his brother had just spoken, their meaning momentarily distracting him from his own impending death.  
"No." he argued, his voice steely with determination even as it shook with the fear that he wouldn't be able to convince his brother to listen to reason. "I won't allow it, Elijah."  
"I'm afraid you don't have a choice in the matter, Niklaus." Elijah said calmly. "I've made up my mind. There's nothing left for me here."  
"What about Hope?" Klaus demanded, tears stinging his eyes at the thought of a world without Elijah. "She needs you, brother."  
"Hope will be fine without me, brother." Elijah assured him. "I truly believe that your daughter is the strongest of us all, and she will not be alone. I have no doubt our siblings will take good care of her as they always have, and she'll have Caroline and Alaric to look after her at school. She's in good hands, and you're perfectly aware of that, Niklaus, or you wouldn't be going through with this."  
"I thought she would be in your hands." Klaus argued, his voice cracking with emotions he was fighting to hold back as he spoke through gritted teeth. "I wanted her to be with you."  
"I'm tired, Niklaus."  
"I don't care!" Klaus shouted, ignoring the truly weary expression on his brother's face as fear took a firm hold.  
"Niklaus." Elijah began, trying to make his brother understand.  
"No!" Klaus argued as a tear spilled over, and he decided that begging was the appropriate next step. "Elijah, please. I can't bear to think of Hope growing up without you. I can't bear to think of a world without you in it even if I'm not there to enjoy it. Please, brother. Grant me this one last wish."  
"Niklaus."

"One year." Klaus countered. If begging wouldn't work maybe bargaining would. "Give me one more year, Elijah, and if by then you have not found something you feel is truly worth your time and energy...then Hayley and I will be waiting for you on the other side."  
Elijah drew in a deep breath and released it through his nose, considering the deal his brother was offering. "If I do this, will it give you peace?"  
"Have you not heard a word I've said?" Klaus demanded, thinking Elijah must be crazy to ask such a ridiculous question. "Yes, Elijah! Knowing you're still here in this world to look after my daughter and live a life free of the burden of your endless pursuit of my redemption—even if it's only for one more year—will give me peace. I understand your reasons, brother, but I will die easier knowing that you are _not_ dying with me."  
"Then I suppose I'll see you in one year." Elijah said, agreeing to Klaus' plan not because he had been convinced that the world was a better place with him in it as his brother seemed to think, but because he wanted Klaus to be at peace with his death. If agreeing to one more year of life would make that possible then that's what he would do.  
"Somehow I doubt that." Klaus said, convinced that Elijah would be able to find something worth living for as he breathed a sigh of relief.  
A small sad smile flashed across Elijah's face as he tucked one half of the broken white oak stake into his jacket. "Time will tell."  
"I look forward to saying 'I told you so' after my daughter has lived a long and happy life with you looking after her." Klaus said as he rose from the bench. "Let's get this over with."  
Elijah rose and turned to face his brother, at a loss for words for the first time in a long time as tears streamed freely down both of their faces.  
"I don't deserve the love you've given me, brother." Klaus said quietly, his voice barely above a whisper as he prepared for what was about to happen. "But I am so grateful."  
Elijah's heart broke as Klaus placed a hand on his shoulder. "It's been a glorious ride, Niklaus. And my greatest honor. I love you, brother."  
"And I you, Elijah." Klaus replied. "Always and forever."  
"Always and forever. Goodbye, brother." Elijah said as he drove the sharp point of the broken stake into his brother's heart, feeling it in his own heart as he watched the person he had loved most for over a thousand years fade away to nothingness.  
It wasn't long before he was watching his brother's ashes float away on the wind to forever be a part of the city they both loved so deeply, and Elijah stood there for a long time staring at nothing and hoping that Klaus would be able to find some sort of peace in the afterlife.  
He would rather be there with him and thought seriously about staking himself anyway and joining his brother as he had originally intended to do, but he decided to keep his promise instead and pulled his phone out of his pocket to call Rebekah as he turned toward home. 

%%%

When he reached the house he hesitated before going inside. He'd already talked to Rebekah, so he had no choice but to go in and explain to the rest of his siblings what had happened. He knew the rest of his family was inside mourning him when they didn't need to be, but he needed a moment before he faced them.  
When he finally stepped into the courtyard he found Freya and Keelin talking about something that clearly made them both very happy, though it appeared to be a bittersweet sort of reverie. He cleared his throat to alert them to his presence, and when they saw him standing there their eyes went wide with shock as if they feared they were looking at a ghost. Under different circumstances, their expressions might have been almost comical.  
"Elijah." Keelin breathed, her shock turning to a mix of confusion and elation.  
Freya was simply confused.  
"I don't understand." she said. "You..."  
"I'm here." he assured her, informing his sisters that he was indeed alive.  
Freya practically flew across the room to throw her arms around him. She pounced on him so hard that she actually threw him off balance and he had to take a step back to avoid tumbling to the floor as he caught her.  
"I'm here." he repeated, wrapping his arms around her and stroking her hair as she clung to him.  
Keelin rose to hug him as well, but it was difficult with Freya still hanging on and his arms were full of both of them when Kol walked in.  
"Bloody hell." his only remaining brother cursed as he stopped dead in his tracks at the sight of him, looking surprised, relieved, and irritated all at once. "I just called Davina to tell her you were dead."  
Elijah smiled. "Well, I suppose you'll just have to call her back and tell her I'm not."  
"What happened?" Keelin asked, Elijah's arm still around her waist as she lifted her head from his shoulder.  
"Apparently this was a journey Niklaus wanted to take by himself." Elijah explained. "He insisted that I stay to take care of Hope."  
"So, in other words, he guilted you into it." Kol translated.  
"In no uncertain terms." Elijah agreed.  
"Then he is gone?" Kol asked, looking like at least part of him hoped Klaus was simply outside having a midnight snack before rejoining his family so they could find a way to save his life.  
Elijah nodded, tightening his grip on Freya ever so slightly when she pressed her face into his shoulder, heartbroken by the news even though she had known it was coming.  
"Yes." he said, giving them verbal confirmation. "I believe our brother is finally at peace."  
"Well, I'm glad you're not." Kol said. "And I'd better go call my wife before she gets too far into her celebration."  
Elijah smiled as Kol turned and walked away, and Freya finally dislodged herself from him.  
"Where's Hope?" he asked as Freya kissed his cheek while Keelin went to go pour drinks to celebrate his homecoming.  
"She's up in her room." Freya informed him, wiping tears away as her face lit up with a smile. "But before you go up there's something Keelin and I need to tell you."  
"And what would that be?" he asked, accepting the glass Keelin handed him though he didn't particularly want the bourbon it contained.  
"You're going to be an uncle again." Freya announced. "We've decided to start a family of our own, and Vincent has agreed to be the father."  
Elijah couldn't have stopped the grin from spreading across his face if his life had depended on it.  
"Congratulations." he said as he set his glass on the table and promptly forgot about it, choosing instead to celebrate with hugs and kisses. "I'm thrilled for you both, and you can tell me all about it tomorrow. But right now I really do need to go talk to Hope."  
Freya nodded, understanding that he wasn't brushing off her happy news by any means. He simply had more pressing matters to attend to at the moment. "Go."  
He kissed her cheek once more, squeezed Keelin's hand, and left them to sort through all their various emotions as he hurried upstairs to check on his niece.

%%%

Bracing himself for her reaction, he knocked lightly on the door and let himself in when there was no response.  
He could see that she had been painting, working on a beautiful portrait of the whole family—one that included him—but she was now curled up in her bed, having cried herself to sleep on top of the covers. She hadn't even taken off her shoes, and she was hugging a framed photo to her chest like a cherished teddy bear.  
He moved to tuck her in properly so she could hopefully get a decent night's sleep—he could explain things in the morning after she had gotten some rest—but she stirred when he tried to gently pry the photo from her arms, staring up at him in confusion as her brain tried to process what she was seeing.  
"Are you really here?" she asked.  
He nodded.  
She sat up and set the picture aside as she tucked her hair behind her ears, still partially asleep and very confused by this unexpected turn of events. "Freya said you were...going with Dad."  
"He wouldn't let me." Elijah explained, noting that the photo she had been clutching was the selfie Klaus had burned so many years ago as he sat down beside her on the bed. "I spent my entire life focused on saving your father, and now that you've done my job for me—better than I ever could have, I might add—I didn't feel there was anything left for me here. Your father didn't agree with me."  
"So, you're only here because he asked you to be?"  
"He thinks I can find a new purpose, something to make me happy." Elijah explained, aware that she was fishing for a certain answer. A genuine smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. "He also thinks you'll be better off with me as your guardian, and now that I've had some time to think it over I have to agree."  
"I would've been okay without you." she said, letting him know that he could've gone if he had really wanted to—no matter what her father wanted.  
"I know." he agreed. "But soon our family will be scattered across the country yet again, and they'll have their own lives and families to tend to. Of course, you know as well as I do that doesn't mean they won't drop everything if you need them, but I do think you need someone who can focus on you right now without any other distractions. Now I know I'm not necessarily you're first choice to fill the role, but I'm more than willing if you'll have me."  
Hope smiled a little before the heartache rushed in again, cutting off whatever answer she might have given him. "So, my dad? He's...he's gone?"  
Elijah nodded, his own eyes filling with tears once more. "Yes."  
"I'm an orphan." she whimpered.  
"You are not an orphan." he insisted, wrapping her in a protective hug as she dropped her head to his shoulder and cried. "You may have lost your parents, but you have a family that loves you and you will never be alone. Do you understand me?"  
She nodded as she clung to him, and at that moment he realized that Klaus had been right. She did need him. He had been certain she would be fine without him because she would have their entire family and a handful of trusted friends to take care of her and protect her, but as she burrowed into him, lost in heartache, grief, and probably a healthy dose of fear, he understood that he had been right as well. She did need someone who could focus on her without any distractions, and right now he was the only person who could do that. Klaus had thought he could find some new purpose, and he couldn't think of a better one than taking care of his broken and wayward niece who was hurting so much right now he couldn't stand it. He had fought so hard to protect her from the moment he had known she existed, and he would continue to do so if she would let him.  
He held her until she finally stopped crying, and offered her his handkerchief to dry her face.  
"Will it ever stop hurting?" she asked as she took the cloth.  
Elijah opened his mouth to answer and realized he didn't know how. He had suffered similar losses over the years, but he had lived long enough that the pain eventually faded for the most part. He had no idea what to tell this girl who was now his responsibility and very mortal.  
"I don't know." he admitted. "But I do know that you're strong enough to handle it, and I'll help in any way I can. Are you okay for now?"  
She nodded. "Yeah. Just tired so from...everything."  
"Try to get some more sleep." he said as he placed his hand on the back of her head and gently pulled her in to place a kiss on her forehead.  
"Elijah?" she called as he turned to leave the room.  
He paused and turned back, willing to do whatever she asked of him.  
"I'm glad you stayed." she said.  
Elijah smiled softly. "So am I."  
"Um..." she continued, obviously uncertain of how to word whatever it was she wanted to say next. Or perhaps wondering if she even should say it.  
After a brief moment of hesitation she decided to spit it out. "Could you...will you stay with me? I know I need to sleep, but...I just don't want to be alone tonight, and you're the one person who was closest to both of my parents. I just don't think curling up with Freya and Keelin tonight is gonna cut it, you know?"  
"Of course." he promised. "Why don't you get ready for bed, and I'll be right back."  
He crossed the room to give her another kiss before he left to go get himself ready for bed even though he would likely be keeping watch over her all night, and Hope took a deep breath when he was gone, letting it out slowly as she picked up the picture he had found her sleeping with. As she set it on her nightstand she could feel the presence of both of her parents and turned to see if they were there, hoping for one more glimpse. The room was empty, but she knew they were there nonetheless.  
"I'll be okay." she assured them as she walked into her bathroom to wash her face properly and get ready for bed.  
As she slept she dreamed that her parents would be there when she woke up, and Elijah could feel them by his side as he watched over her even though he couldn't see them.  
"You win, brother." he said quietly to Klaus's ghost as he brushed Hope's curtain aside to gaze out into the night. "I'm not going anywhere." ****

 **So, what'd ya think? More? Yes? No? Are you okay? Let me know because y'all know I love reviews! ~SG**


End file.
